Before the Los Angeles Lakers ’ road tilt in Atlanta, JJ Redick told reporters he likes where the defense sits through nine games, even with LeBron James sidelined, and circled two fixes for this trip.

Cleaner transition defense and answers for “unorthodox” pick-and-rolls. He also shouted out DeAndre Ayton’s rim protection metrics as a closest defender trending near the top of the league, per an exchange relayed by The Athletic’s Law Murray on X, formerly Twitter. Expand Tweet Article Continues Below

On paper, there’s progress; the latest data point was a 122–102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, where execution wobbled in the middle quarters . Los Angeles turned it over 20 times and gave up 51.1% shooting, numbers that make any scheme look ordinary. Luka Doncic led the Lakers with

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